Which Comes First: Product Launch or Content Marketing?

If you're a solopreneur or entrepreneur, you might find yourself trying to answer this question. Which do you do first: launch your product or service, or build your audience through content marketing?

(Or...maybe you have no idea what "content marketing" means. Let me explain. "Content marketing" is the practice of attracting an audience and demonstrating your value to them through useful blog posts, social media posts, and other pieces of content like ebooks or even emails.)

Ok - we're all together now? So which do you do first?

If You Launch Your Product First

If you launch your product first, you will have a viable product to offer your audience as you attract them. This could serve you really well. As you learn what your audience is interested in, based on which blog posts perform best, you can refine your product offering to ensure it fits your audience. 

If You Build Your Audience First

If you focus on building your audience first, by the time you launch a monetized product, you (hopefully) have a built-in audience who already believes in your value. You've got a crowd of people who are so pleased with what you've offered them for free via blog, social, and email, that they're excited to pay you for access to a bit more of your awesomeness. And that product or service will be informed by what you've learned about what works for your audience - which blogs get the most traffic, which emails get the most opens and clicks, which social posts get the most likes and shares.

I don't think there's one right answer. The right answer for you is the one you've thought through and chosen consciously. It's what, considering the strengths and challenges of each approach, fits your goals and business model best.